Here's my notes for Mission 18. Hope it helps
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Mission 18
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(3/21) Watch the demo in license S-15 first!!
This is by far the hardest mission. I spent a good 3 hours before beating it.
This mission is almost equivalent to getting silver (if not gold) in 3 straight
tries in S-15, plus the complexity of overtaking at 200mph....
Your Nissan R92CP Race Car with 939HP is indeed overpowering the rest of the
fields, but the 32+ seconds deficit is almost too much to overcome. The test
venue is Circuit de la Sarthe II (the kinkless version). The course looks
incredibly narrow when you are traveling at 180+ mph.
Refer to
http://www.racingcircuits.net/France/LeMans87.html about the name
of the corners.
Approaching the first chicane, brake much later than the downshift indicator.
Find a line so that you can brake once into gear 2 and accelerate out of the
chicane. For the esses, brake at the moment the red indicator flashes and take
the left-right at no lower than gear 3.
If you can't reach the first checkpoint on the Mulsanne Straight within 30.3
seconds from the lead car, you will probably not be able to pass the 5th car
before the end of the straight. If you can't pass it before the straight, it
is very likely that you will lose too much time trying to battle it in the
Mulsanne 90-degree right hander. If you can't get within 27 seconds when you
hit the checkpoint just after the corner, it's probably time to restart.
The next section before Indianapolis is very narrow. Putting a tyre on the
grass will throw you off spinning. I took the right bend before Indianapolis
at gear 4 (instead of 5) and Indianapolis at gear 2. Brake early for Arnage
and take it no lower than gear 2.
The next section is when the S-15 demo will really help. It consists of a
series of light bends (Porsche Curve, Maison Blanche) which can be taken at
relatively high speed, most of them at gear 4. If you are not familiar with
the timing of the curve enough, it's very easy to get thrown off in the sand,
or slow down too much.
The two Ford chicanes should be taken at gear 3 and gear 2 respectively. My
split times at the finish line are: +23.299, +11.984 and -0.176. I barely
took the lead car's inside at the last chicane (in fact, the right in the
left-right chicane, no less) at the last lap. So these splits are probably the
minimum requirement for beating this mission.
Caught up with the ... car at ...
5th: first lap, mid Mulsanne straight
4th: second lap, starting grid
3rd: second lap, straight after Arnage
2nd: third lap, before esses
1st: third lap, before finish, by a hair
Checkpoints:
1: After esses, before Tertre Rouge
2: Mulsanne Straight 1
3: Mulsanne Straight 2
4: right after Mulsanne 90-degree right hander
5: Arnage
6: Porsche Curve
7: finish line
Checkpoint Times:
1st lap: +31.632 +29.570 +27.812 +26.458 +25.866 +24.988 +23.299
2nd lap: +20.466 +18.270 +16.633 +15.243 +14.947 +13.213 +11.984
3rd lap: +9.847 +7.647 +6.042 +4.690 +3.948 +2.080 -0.176
My time: 9:11.867
AI time: 9:12.043
about my time in a message in the big Mission Hall thread but it took laps in the 2:58 range to win. My Reply to that post.
As to which would be faster, who knows? Lap times anyone?
). But I do agree with you--I just think it's kinda whack. The C5R is no longer the factory team, but I believe they are still placing above the viper entries. Yes, that's very recent news, but the vettes were still running circles around everything else out there for the last 4 years--why no respect? And I know the vettes set lap records several times--I doubt the viper actually ran faster laps. On top of that, the vettes keep getting heavier (penalty weight for winning). And they still keep winning.
